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brendahassebooks

The Heartland Fall Forum is a three-day annual event hosted by the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association (MIBA) and Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association (GLIBA) to bring bookstore owners, publishers, and authors together. This year it was held in Cleveland, Ohio. Guests stayed in the Renaissance Hotel, a historic hotel with lovely architectural features, tasteful decorating, and spacious hotel rooms.

Day one’s agenda included book awards, an opening reception, and a gathering at Loganberry, a new/used bookstore. The smell of books greeted us as we entered the bookstore. My eyes were immediately drawn to a lovely antique wooden bookshelf with its arches and decorative trim. The store provided food, drink, and music as we wandered through its many rooms. One room, the Sanctuary, contained antique books safely enclosed behind glass. There was always someone standing nearby to help you locate a particular book or unlock its protective case.

MIBA and GLIBA conducted their membership meetings while attendees enjoy a breakfast to begin the second day. Everyone listened to the speaker at the Marquee Author Event. This year we enjoyed an entertaining lecture by Ruta Sepetys. The remainder of the day encompassed three seminars, lunch, the opening of the trade show floor, and a tasting notes dinner with recognized authors speaking. The evening entertainment, if you chose to test your literary skill, was to participate in a quiz bowl.

The final day began with a children’s author breakfast, followed by the open trade show floor, and author book signings. The movable feast included a lovely lunch with tables visited by many authors all pitching their book. The conference concluded with a marquee author event featuring Emma Straub.

Overall, the conference was quite nice and well organized. It is always a pleasure to make connections with other booksellers, publishers, and authors. We met many first-time bookstore owners too.

What I would like to see improved in the conference?

The class on Edelweiss for Beginners may work better as a walkthrough/workshop. Ex: Go to this page, click on this, etc.

Since the speaker for the Economics of Publishing and How They Impact Booksellers could not attend because of flight issues, a repeat of this seminar would be nice.

Round Tables – description for each round table would helpful. The roundtable with bookstore owners offering ideas and suggestions of what works best in their store, what doesn’t, and solutions is most helpful and should be offered again.

We attend this conference to focus on bookselling and the business of bookselling. One speaker made a reference to a political issue we are presently experiencing. The last thing we wanted to think about was politics, nor did we appreciate her opinion. It may be wise to advise all lecturers to keep their political opinion to themselves.

The keynote by Emma Straub could have ended at the completion of her speaking. She was enjoyable and very funny. The questions posed to her by the gentleman were repetitive. She covered the same material in her speech.

The 2019 Heartland Fall Forum was enjoyable and educational. See you in St. Louis, Missouri for the 2020 Heartland Fall Forum!

At the stroke of 12:01am, July 31, 2016, boxes were cut open to the resounding cheers of awaiting readers who had counted down the last 10 minutes while they stood in line. Many were dressed in costumes, carrying wands, and wearing time turners around their necks. They waited patiently for Harry Potter And The Cursed Child to be placed into their hands, whisk out the door, and begin reading.

I attended the Harry Potter event at Fenton’s Open Book. The quaint book store resonated with the familiar tune from the soundtrack. Wax sealed letters fluttering from the lights and were hidden throughout the store. All of the letters were addressed to Harry. A white speckled plastic owl on a shelf held two letter in her beak. Several staff members were donned in black robes, served chocolate frogs, gummy slugs, and gold chocolate coins (from Gringotts, no doubt). On a platter were gummy worms, sour patch gummy worms, more slugs, and more chocolate coins. A small cauldron brimmed with Bertie Botts flavored jelly beans, which the guests chose wisely. They drank butter beer while counting the total number of envelopes and entered their guess for a chance to win a book store gift card or engaged in printed activity worksheets. Many fans helped themselves to a lightning bolt tattoo or poster. Markers were available for a ‘muggle’ to explain what Harry Potter meant to them on the oversized poster.

As I watched the customers linger about the book store, I realized the latest release in the Harry Potter books was more than just a book for the following reasons:

It is a success story of J. K. Rowling facing challenging times and rising above it.

The series has inspired many to pick up a book and read.

K. Rowling’s books have helped small, independent book stores stay in business and continue to serve their community.

K. Rowling has inspired others to imagine and write.

In my small city of Fenton, Michigan, it has brought together citizens of various ages for a few hours when they would normally be sleeping. They enjoyed each other’s company, ate, shopped, and supported a local business.

I imagine some of the books were opened and read throughout the early morning hours. I will begin, and perhaps finish, my book today.

I am thankful for the positive influence J. K. Rowling’s work has had on my community. For those who write for others to read, may we hope to achieve such an influence on others’ lives.

This past weekend (May 11 – 13) I accompanied a friend and local bookstore owner to the Book Expo America (BEA) in Chicago. I have attended other regional conferences before, but this was my first time to the BEA. I attended a breakfast with featured speakers and stood in line for author signings their advanced reader copies (arc) of their soon to be published book. It was an exhausting three day event highlighted by a few unexpected quirks.

I am a small town girl, unaccustomed to mass transit and city noise. Large cities make me uncomfortable. Our 13th floor hotel room was nice, but the street noise echoed though our double-pane widow as if it was nonexistent. People yelling, traffic, and endless sirens serenaded us throughout the night making it difficult to sleep.

Charter buses provided free transportation to and from our hotel to the event center. As we rode through the dark underground bowels of Chicago for the first time, I wondered when the vampires and zombies would attack the bus. The bus schedule was unaccommodating. Buses stopped running at the opening of the event (10:00) and began again at 3:30. Anyone wishing to return to their hotel had to take a taxi. Our main objective was to place book orders and obtain arcs for an event at the bookstore. Orders were easily placed and promotion rates welcomed. Arcs were plentiful. We collected books quickly filling the complimentary promotional bags, but unlike a regional conference, we only had three options on what to do with the heavy bags of books. First, we could have put the arcs in a box in the designated shipping area, but we were not allowed to pickup the box at a later time. The cost to ship each box – $41. Not exactly a rate a small independent bookstore can afford. Second, we could pay for each bag to be held in the coat and luggage designated areas – $4 per bag. However, we collected between 16 to 20 bags of books. More than we wanted to pay since we give the arcs away as a bookstore promotion. We did notice that experienced attendees had checked an empty luggage bag in the holding area and returned often to deposit their books. Note to self for next time. Third, we carry the heavy bags of books while in attendance, which we did. On the second day, we were able to make one trip back to our hotel after lugging the books for four hours, drop off a load of books in our room, and return only to be burdened with heavy bags with minutes. No wonder there was a booth with three massage chairs and massage therapists available for patrons.

The breakfast on the second day was quite nice. Each attendee received a free copy of the speakers’ books. Many of their presentations were humorous and entertaining, others were quite touching and sentimental. As I sat and listened to their lectures, I wondered if I would ever step onto the stage platform as a featured speaker one day. If there were other aspiring authors within the large room, I am certain they were imagining the same.

Author signings brought up a similar sentiment. Would I ever be the one signing my name to copies of my book while looking toward an seemingly endless line searching for the last person while flexing my cramped hand in between signatures and forcing a smile upon my face as the next eager person stepped before me? Ah, to dream.

The close of the second day was celebrated as bottles of wine were uncorked, beer seemed to flow from hidden kegs, and several patrons carried plastic fluted glasses of champagne. One friendly publisher uncorked a bottle of Scotch whiskey as a promotion for his new book on the topic. Yes, I indulged in a very small glass diluted with water. It was surprisingly good, very smooth.

By the last day of the BEA our shoulders were bruised and our feet ached. Thank goodness for the provided lounge. We were treated to popcorn, cookies, brownies, and beverages. It also gave us a change to rest and chat with others.

As booths closed early, we made our way to the buses and returned to our hotel to load the car and drive home. Was our trip a success? Yes, and no. We were able to experience the BEA, learn a few things along the way, but fell short of our goal to collect enough arc books for our fall event. It looks as if we will be attending a regional conference in the fall.